Am început această carte cu aşteptări ridicate, însă am rămas cu mai multe întrebări decât la începutul romanului...
Acţiunea are loc în două planuri paralele: unul în secolul XVI şi unul în secolul XX.
Primul plan prezintă viața lui Isabelle Turnier şi a familiei sale, pe fundalul unor evenimente cutremurătoare din istoria Franței: Noaptea Sfântului Bartolomeu (1572), care a fost unul dintre cele mai mari masacre religioase comise asupra protestanților din Franța.
Al doilea o urmăreşte pe Ella Turner (descendentă a familiei Tournier) recent sosită din SUA în Franţa, însoţindu-şi soţul arhitect într-o nouă provocare profesională. Ajunsă în sudul Franței, decide că trebuie să facă cercetări asupra istoriei familiei sale şi să descopere cine au fost cu adevărat Tournierii.
Investigația se dovedeşte a fi foarte interesantă din punctul meu de vedere, mai ales pentru ca Elle începe să aibă diverse vise care o vor ajuta să descopere secretele întunecate ale strămoşilor săi.
Mi-au plăcut în mod deosebit capitolele dedicate lui Isabelle şi datorită acestui fapt plănuiesc să citesc "Fata cu cercel de perlă", o altă ficțiune istorică scrisă de Tracy Chevalier.
Din păcate, multe aspecte din romanul "Albastru pur" au rămas neelucidate, unele au fost chiar bizare, iar deznodământul a fost dezamăgitor comparativ cu incipitul.
În plus, traducerea nu a fost cea mai potrivită din punctul meu de vedere şi cred că acest lucru a ştirbit din farmecul cărţii.
Totuşi, subiectul în sine este fascinant şi recomand această carte cititorilor pasionați de ficțiune istorică, deoarece vor afla foarte multe detalii interesante despre istoria Europei.

I enjoyed the jumping back and forth in time from current to the 1500s. I enjoyed the historical aspect of the early Protestant French. I loved the main female character featured in the 1500s. I didn't really like Ella, the main female character in the current time.

Surprisingly good for a book I bought at random years ago just because it was 89 cents on Rebuy. I was really intrigued by the story and how the two women (Isabelle and Ella) were connected (obviously through blood, but there was more). Loved it when Ella's hair started turning copper. Gave me shivers. Would have loved it if there had been more of an explanation on the connection of the Tourniér women to Isabelle. Also why their hair was starting to turn red. But I still really enjoyed it. Especially the end when Isabelle's and Ella's timelines become more interconnected and you could really see the parallels between the two women's lives. Also the similarity between their names?? Isabelle - Isabella - Ella? Can't be a coincidence, right?
The second Ella started describing Jean-Paul I knew Rick was done for lol. Hated the adultery, but loved the story. Also I just really liked the writing style. Very lovely. Pleasantly surprised by this book.

Unfortunatley, not a favorite of mine from this author. I usually really enjoy reading her books but this one, while it started out strong, just came together too quickly at the end and I was left very confused. It was also a bit heavy on the romance for my tastes. The early storyline was interesting and I enjoyed learning about French history but the second storyline was not engaging and felt a bit too false, it didn't really ring true for me.

I realy liked this book more than I thought I would. It has a little bit of everything: a little bit of history, a little bit of mistery, a little bit of love, a little bit of freakyness. This cocktail of elements makes a very enjoyable reading which I have read in a heartbeat.

Several things were covered in this historical/modern day novel. Part of the story was of Isabelle, a 15th century woman who was "cursed" with having red hair - the same color of hair as the Virgin Mary was portrayed as having. The time period was about the time when the Huguenots were being chased out of France into Sweden. The other part of the story is about Ella, a modern day woman who is researching the mystery behind her family ancestry after a move to France.

In essence, this is partly a historical tale and partly a mystery.

I loved the historical story. It was fascinating to read Isabella's story and I loved that the author focused so intensely on the characters. The bits of historical detail were interesting but not so much that I felt as if I were reading a text book. This part of the story really came to life for me.

The modern day story (aside from the mystery/research angle) was a bit cliche. There were times I felt a connection with Ella and times when I just wanted to smack her around. Also there was this weird mysticism thing going on that was just..strange, and things feel into place for Ella way too easily. If you read the book, you'll understand what I'm talking about.

My neighbor gave me this book to read and I'll be happy to tell her I enjoyed it, I really did. I read it in an evening - so it's definitely an interesting read. I just wish the story's ending hadn't been as predictable as it was.

This book is beautiful and haunting, managing to convey both the profound sense of isolation when someone is shunned from society or grows apart from a spouse, but also a deep sense of connection between generations of a family.

Ella Turner has moved to a small village in France for her husband Rick's work. Ella had been a midwife when they lived in California and she begins studying to pass the exams for certification in France. She is also very interested in researching her family history and begins a quest throughout the local countryside.

Isabelle du Moulin lived in this area 400 years before Ella arrived. Her story began fairly happily as she married Etienne Tournier, the son of a well-to-do farmer, and they immediately started a family. Religious unrest forced the family from their home during widespread slaughter of Catholics. They headed for Switzerland to join with other followers of Calvin. Although it was considered a sin, Isabelle continued to feel drawn to the Virgin Mary and the deep blue color associated with Mary. Isabelle's life did not continue to be a happy one as her husband began to beat her mercilessly and he treated their daughter Marie with undisguised hatred.

Ella follows the trail of the Tourniers through the years until she finds the story of Isabelle. She is unexplainably drawn to the woman and can almost feel her thoughts, fears and passions. What Ella ultimately learns uncovers a mystery from the 16th century.

The story is told in alternating chapters by Ella and Isabelle until the last few where their stories merge. It was an interesting way to tell the story. I found it fascinating and really enjoyed it. I'm not sure that Ella was always the most likable character as some of her decisions were rather questionable, but she is a determined woman.

This was a very interesting book about two women, centuries apart, linked through blood and circumstances.
Ella Turner moves to France with her husband Rick for his job. She has nothing to do with her days (she was a midwife in the U.S., but cannot yet practice in France) and begins researching her family history.
In nearly every other chapter we read of Isabella, who lived 400 years earlier. She is beginning her adult life with a marriage and child on the way. Forced to give up her beliefs in the Catholic church and the Virgin Mary as well as her skill in midwifery, she lives with her husband's family, the Tourniers.

This book is full of beautifully-written parallels with the two main characters. It is sad and rich. There were parts I didn't love and it dragged a bit in the middle, but by about page 200 or so I couldn't put it down. It had some heart-breaking moments and everything came together so well at the end.

This is a really impressive first novel by the same author as The Girl with the Pearl Earring (a favorite of mine). I'm definitely putting her other book Falling Angels on my to-read shelf.

Curious, mildly interesting, but fell short of Chevalier's other books.

Quel dommage. And it tried to hit so many of my favorite things, too. I mean, France, genealogy, and a historical topic that is seldomly represented in English literature. What could wrong?

n  n    ‘Ah, the blue of the Renaissance. You know there is lapis lazuli in this blue. It was so expensive they could only use it for important things like the Virgin’s robe.’n  n

Here we are again with le bleu. But this is Tracy Chevalier's first novel, so it's not as good as her other novels. There are better books about this famous shade of blue, too, that do better at helping the reader appreciate it, such as Christopher Moore's n  Sacré Bleun.

n  n    An old man appeared on the opposite bank. —Don’t stop here, he said abruptly. Don’t stop at all until you reach Vienne. It is very bad here. And don’t go near St Etienne or Lyons. He disappeared into the woods.n  n

This novel is told through dual timelines, one taking place in the late 1500s that is mostly in the aftermath of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, during which prominent Huguenots (French Protestants) were murdered by a Catholic mob when they went to Paris to attend the marriage of Henri de Navarre, who was later King Henri IV of France (he was killed too, as was Henri III before him).

In this timeline, we follow Isabelle, who lives in the Cévannes and...marries a boy who raped and bullied her. Most people around her are abusive religious extremists who had recently converted to Calvinism from Catholicism. Even though I'm not religious, I'm still biased as to which sect I like more, especially if a Jesuit enters the picture. Alas, there are no Jesuits here, just crazed ignorant people, and Isabelle is stuck there unable even to look upon an image of the Virgin Mary because that would distract from God and encourage polytheism.

In any case, things aren't looking good for Isabelle.

n  n    ‘Because you are basing all your proof on coincidence and your guts rather than on concrete evidence. You are struck by a painting, by a certain blue, and because of that and the painter’s name is yours you decide he is an ancestor? No.n  n

In the present timeline, we have Ella, who leaves a lot to be desired. She just moved to a town outside of Toulouse and decided to do her genealogy (read: have other people do her genealogy).

As someone who worked at a genealogy library for seven years, the idea of a burgeoning romance between a librarian and a helpless genealogist is both preposterous and revolting. But it doesn't stop there. Over the course of the novel, Ella amasses a small army of people whose primary focus seems to be helping her family research. She is even given a ~500-year-old book held by an archive, even though, after so many centuries, there could be hundreds of thousands of other descendants, making Ella far from uniquely suitable to be given this fragile archival material. These are all sentences I should never have had to write.

It so happens that Ella's ancestors, the Tournier family, i.e., the one that produced the rapist whom Isabelle married in the other timeline.

n  n    They all know my business, I thought. Even a Tournier across town knows my business.n  n

Both Ella and Isabelle are gossiped about and criticized by the generalized towns they live in. Ella struggles to feel at home with the French, while Isabella is considered a guileless slut for having red hair and asking a traveling merchant for news. The story includes a vague supernatural element that connects the two women (as well as other female Tournier descendants).

Ultimately, there are too many problems that range from an annoying main character (Ella) to plot points that don't ring true (giving archival material to a random American). The present timeline half-reads like a helpless library patron's fantasy trip to France. The thread is even lost in the 1500s timeline, which failed to impact me because of how unbelievable the ending was. I think it might have even tried to imply something like reincarnated lovers as a little side thing. Yeah.

Overall, most readers should focus on Chevalier's other novels, particularly n  The Lady and the Unicornn, which is also partially set in France.

Meni lično je ovo najdraža Trejsina knjiga... Inače nisam naročiti ljubitelj njenih romana...